Read the whole article to find out how to always become ‘eligible’ for the TSA Pre-Check to breeze through TSA security.

The way TSA Pre-Check works is the organizations that participate transmit travel information for passengers who opt-in to the program to the TSA. Then the TSA in a way that randomizes security determines if the passenger is or is not eligible for Pre-Check and sends that information back to the Airline. The Airline then encodes that information in a barcode that is on the boarding pass it issues.

The problem is, the passenger and flight information encoded in barcode is not encrypted in any way. Using a web site I decoded my boarding pass for my upcoming trip.

TSA is not about real security, it is about the appearance of security. No one in government really cares about security. There is very little downside to terrorist attacks for elected officials (they can get a big boost in the aftermath). The TSA is to make people feel good, nothing more.

The idiot author at the link says: “This is a check you can perform yourself, without fancy software of any kind…”

It’s the “fancy” software itself that creates this type of layered PDF. Scan your birth cert with Acrobat…the real Acrobat Pro. Then open the resultant PDF in Illustrator. Notice that you get exactly the same thing as the Obama birth cert.

I haven’t visited the USA since 98, back when you could walk off the street to the boarding area, a security checkin was a verbal statement that, “I packed this bag”, nobody was searched, and I could travel from Los Angeles to NY, London, Manchester, Rome, Hong Kong and Sydney and nobody would stop me or check my ID or my passport when moving between airport terminals wheeling a large locked suitcase.

But that would require end-to-end encryption and verification, preferably with a hardened, physically connected network device. Most of the TSA theater set was installed over existing hallways that weren’t designed for that level of infrastructure. And good luck shutting down the airport for the week to 10 days (government contractor estimates… so add an extra 2-3 days) necessary to cut through the concrete floor to get to the conduit installed.

All that work just so someone can use a stolen credit card to buy the ticket and produce a phony photo ID.

There’s weak points throughout the system, so why bother? The best thing that came out of 9/11 security was locking the door of the flight deck, and adding more air marshals a close second.

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